fix(web): suggest and merge existing people when naming a person

[Deeds67]

Fixes #1098, fixes #1099, fixes #1100.

Cause

All three come from the same gap: naming a person never checked the name against people who already exist in a Space. The reports make it look like Admin vs Editor. It's really about who owns the people: the admin owns the library where the pets were detected, and the editor sees them only through a Space.

• [bug] Editor role gets no person/pet name autosuggest when naming faces, unlike Admin — critical for my use case #1098: the name field on /people/[personId] (EditNameInput → PeopleSearch) called searchPerson without withSharedSpaces, so it only returned people the viewer owns. For the editor that's nobody.
• [bug? / Feature?] No autosuggest when naming people/pets directly from the People overview grid, for both Admin and Editor #1099: the inline "Add a name" field on the People grid tiles was a plain <input> with no suggestions, for everyone. The only way to reach an existing identity was to type its exact name.
• [bug] Naming a pet with an already-existing exact name does not match/merge to the existing identity, as Editor #1100: typing the exact name didn't catch the duplicate either:
  • The global grid skipped its same-name check for Space people (isPersonalPrimary gate), and the check searched only owned people.
  • The Space grid and the Space person page called updateSpacePerson straight away.

Together these left an editor naming a Space pet with no route to the existing one, which is how the reporter ended up with three "Norgy" entries.

Changes

Person page (/people/[personId])

• The name field searches with withSharedSpaces.
• The same-name check on save also searches with withSharedSpaces.
• Suggestion avatars come from getGlobalPersonThumbnailUrl, so a Space person's avatar loads from the Space endpoint instead of 404ing on the owner-only one.

People grids (people-management-grid.svelte)

• New optional searchNameSuggestions / onSuggestionSelect props add a suggestion dropdown under the tile's name field. It's a combobox (aria-activedescendant, arrow keys and Enter, Escape closes it).
• Picking a suggestion offers a merge instead of renaming. mousedown is cancelled so the click doesn't blur the input and commit the typed text first.

Global People grid

• Suggestions come from searchPerson({ withSharedSpaces: true }).
• The same-name check now covers Space people (the isPersonalPrimary gate is gone) and searches shared spaces. It dates from the global-identities change (feat: add global face identities across spaces #495), before PersonMergeSuggestionModal learned to send Space people through the scoped merge.
• Declining the merge for a picked suggestion leaves the name alone. Declining the prompt for a typed exact name still renames, as before.
• The post-merge rename in handleMerge goes through updatePersonName instead of the owner-only updatePerson, so it writes to the Space for a Space person.

Space People grid and Space person page

• Suggestions come from getSpacePeople({ name, named: true }).
• A new helper, space-person-name-merge.ts, finds a Space person with the same name (ignoring case and accents). It then asks before running the Space merge, with the cross-owner confirmation. Both Space surfaces use it, and the Space person page's existing suggestion pick now uses it too, instead of its own copy.
• Declining the merge keeps the rename, so two genuinely different pets can still share a name.

There are no server or i18n changes. GET /search/person?withSharedSpaces=true is already RBAC-scoped through searchAccessiblePeople, and the dropdown's label reuses the existing suggestions key.

Not changed

The asset-viewer face editor and the assign-face panel still list only the viewer's own people. They reassign faces rather than name a person, so they're a separate question.

Tests

• person-detail-page.spec.ts: an editor renaming a Space person gets shared-space suggestions with the Space thumbnail. Saving an exact shared name opens the merge modal.
• person-merge-suggestion-modal.spec.ts: a Space-to-Space merge goes through mergeScopedPeople, never mergePersonLegacy. This pins existing behaviour.
• people-page.spec.ts: a global grid tile suggests shared-space people and picking one opens the merge modal without renaming. A Space-primary tile given an existing shared name opens the merge modal.
• space-people-page.spec.ts: a Space grid tile suggests and merges on click and with the keyboard. Declining a picked suggestion changes nothing. A typed exact name (different case) offers the merge.
• space-person-detail-page.spec.ts: a typed exact name on the Space person page merges and navigates to the surviving person. Declining still renames.

With the source changes set aside, the two #1098 page tests and the seven new grid and Space-page behaviour tests all fail. The decline-fallback test and the modal test pass either way; they pin existing behaviour.

Two existing tests changed. The Space grid's "no refresh after rename" check now allows name-filtered lookups. The Space person page's rename test waits for the save, which now looks up the name first.

The full web unit suite passes locally (6407 tests). Prettier, eslint and tsc are clean on the changed files. svelte-check reports no new warnings.

[github-actions]

🧪 Release candidate build

Latest RC pr-1136-rc.0, built from 650b637 · build run

Images published

• ghcr.io/open-noodle/gallery-server:pr-1136-rc.0 (linux/amd64 + linux/arm64)

How to run this RC

In the directory containing your docker-compose.yml, create (or append to) a docker-compose.override.yml:

services:
  immich-server:
    image: ghcr.io/open-noodle/gallery-server:pr-1136-rc.0

Then pull and restart:

docker compose pull immich-server
docker compose up -d

Each push publishes a new numbered tag, so update the image line to move to a newer RC. To roll back, point it at an earlier rc.<n> or delete the override and run docker compose up -d again.

Last updated Thu, 24 Sep 2026 17:55:54 GMT. Every push while the rc/rc-ml label is set publishes a new numbered RC. All pr-1136 RC images are deleted when this PR closes.